


Eternal

by Eternally_Exhausted



Category: The LEGO Movie (2014)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22964071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eternally_Exhausted/pseuds/Eternally_Exhausted
Summary: Benny tries to cope with a difficult loss.
Relationships: Benny/Bad Cop (The LEGO Movie)
Kudos: 9





	Eternal

Caesar glanced up as one of the massive doors creaked open, permitting entrance to a single soul. At the familiar glint of copper, he sighed and reached down for his spare bottle, plunking it down on the table and pulling the cork out. He slid it across as his guest dropped himself into the chair opposite of him. “I knew you’d come to see me eventually,” he said. “Sweater’s a bit big on you, isn’t it?”

“Still smells like him,” Benny said thickly, accepting the bottle and taking a swig. He grimaced as the rum burned its way down, and took another gulp. Caesar raised his eyebrows at that.

“Careful, that’ll knock you into next week.”

“ _Good_.” He slammed the bottle back down, not caring that some of its contents splashed all over his hand. “How do you do it?”

“I’m going to need some clarification on what ‘it’ is, lad.”

“How do you… How do you keep on going when your whole world has fallen down around you…? When it feels like you’re missing half of yourself? When you know that you-” He swallowed hard. “Know that you’ll outlive every single person that’s ever mattered to you…?”

“Been a week now, has it…?”

“Yeah…” Benny wiped at his eyes. “Just when I thought I was all out of tears… I’m so tired of burying people, Caesar… I can’t take anymore, not after him… I’m not even a hundred yet, how did you do it for _eight thousand years?_ ”

Caesar sighed and took a drink from his own bottle. “I had Vitruvius,” he said simply. “But we each dealt with it in our own ways. He took a vow of celibacy, I never let any of my dalliances get too close. We made it so that, in the end, we would only ever have each other. It’s been sixty years, lad, yet it still feels like I just lost him yesterday, sometimes. That pain never _really_ goes away, it just… becomes easier to deal with. Takes practice, like with anything else.”

Benny studied Caesar from across the table. The retired pirate had never seemed so _old_ before. Oh, his hair and beard were white long before Benny had even met him, sure, but he’d had the same youthful vitality that Vitruvius had, right up until the day he’d died. But now he _looked_ every bit as ancient as he was.

He wondered how long it would take for him to look like that.

Caesar smirked at him. “Starting to look my age, finally, am I?” he asked. Benny nodded sheepishly. “Aye lad, my time is finally about up. Tonight’s my last night on this fine earth.”

Benny looked stricken at that. “Oh Caesar no, not you too…! Please, I _can’t_ …”

“Oh, don’t mourn for me, lad, I look forward to it!” He raised his bottle. “I’ve finally completed my last task, and now I pass the torch on to you. You’ll make an excellent sentinel, I think.”

Benny gave him a weary look. “And if I decide I’ve had enough and would rather fly into the sun?”

“That be your choice lad,” Caesar chuckled. “But I’ve lived long enough to learn that the things we hold dear have a way of coming back to us, eventually. I’ve lived to see Atlantis restored! And Master Builders learn to work together again! And _many_ wondrous other things, lad. If I were you, I wouldn’t give up just yet. Now come on Benny, drink with me tonight, celebrate with me! And in the morning, set me adrift in a dinghy and light me up, I want my ashes scattered at sea.”

Smiling through his tears at Caesar’s antics, Benny raised his bottle as well. He supposed, for a pirate, there could be no finer send-off.


End file.
